At the 329th meeting of the Council of Western European Union (WEU), held at ministerial level on 12 and 13 October 1967 in London, the delegations discuss the situation in the Middle East. Following the Six-Day War between Israel and a coalition of Arab League states from 5 to 10 June 1967, Lord Chalfont, a British minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, sets out the British Government’s position on the situation in the region. The United Kingdom believes that the United Nations (UN) is the only practical instrument for a settlement to the conflict. On the matter of the closure of the Suez Canal and oil supplies, the British Government considers it vital that all Western European countries demonstrate their solidarity in the defence of their common interests. The French minister delegate, André Bettencourt, emphasises the fact that lasting peace in the Middle East must be based on solutions that have been freely negotiated between the interested parties, accepted by all parties concerned and enshrined by the international community. However, he comments that, although the UN Security Council would seem to offer a framework that would facilitate the search for a solution to the conflict, the difficult relations between the United States and the USSR on the Security Council are not making the situation any easier to resolve.